It was a close call, and thank goodness Willie Nelson is still with us.
The country legend is gearing up to release a new book called The Last Leaf: Reflections on Late-Life Creativity—and My Longest Love Affair, which is set to be released on November 10th.
It will of course focus on Willie’s love affair with music, but also, is dedicated to the love of his life, Annie, whom he still calls his “best friend for four decades.” He will detail their first meeting in 1986 on the set of the movie Stagecoach, where she was working as a makeup artist, to how she helped him get through COVID, which nearly took him out.
He called her the “heroine” of this book, and he says the years he lived past that are “because of [her]”:
“The backbone of this book is a love story. The heroine is my wife, Annie, who kept me alive when I was sure I was gone. COVID nearly got me. I was hurting so bad I wanted out. But Annie wouldn’t let me go. The years I’ve lived since then are because of Annie. And so is this book.”
During a recent interview with Anderson Cooper for CNN ahead of the release, Willie opened up on his tough battle with COVID back in 2022, and while it never made the news, he talked about it with New York Times Magazine, and Annie says they set up a makeshift hospital at home, and threw the kitchen sink at it:
“I had a nebulizer on the bus. I started everything I could at that point, including Paxlovid. He had the monoclonal antibodies. He had steroids. We turned the house into a hospital. There were a couple of times when I wasn’t sure he was going to make it.”
Willie adds:
“I had a pretty rough time with it. COVID ain’t nothing to laugh at, that’s for sure.”
And while a lifetime of smoking has put quite a strain on Willie’s lungs over the years, he was recovered in six days and back to playing shows two weeks later. The time at home felt like a prison sentence of the road warrior who admits he would sit in his tour bus sometimes, just to feel like he was going somewhere:
“Every day it was more and more like a prison sentence.”
But according to Annie, Willie isn’t ready to retire anytime soon… and maybe, not ever.
“At the end of every tour, Will talks about retiring. But then we’ll have a conversation: ‘Well, what would you do if you retired?’ We both know the answer: Just lay down and die. It’s impossible to imagine him not being out there.”
He just wrapped up another tour this past summer, and even put out his 79th solo studio album Dream Chaser in May, so he hasn’t really slowed down much, and it’s beyond impressive considering he’s 93-years-old.
He told Cooper his case of COVID was so bad, he wanted to “punch out,” but Annie wasn’t having it:
“Oh god yeah, it was terrible. I wanted to punch out, I wanted to go, Annie wouldn’t let me. She said, ‘If you die, I’ll kill you.'”
I can’t imagine how awful that was, and Willie admits he “wanted to die,” saying it was the “worst feeling” he’s ever had:
“Yes, I could tell that I was dying… I wanted to die. It was the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”
It’s a blessing that he survived and it sounds like his wife is a big reason for that, and the two of them have been married since 1991 and share two children together, Lukas and Micah.
Cooper also read an excerpt from Willie’s forthcoming book with his thought on the afterlife, and Willie explained that he believes in reincarnation, so even when he goes, he thinks he’ll be back in another form:
“Yeah. No, you keep coming back. I believe in reincarnation. We leave, we’ll be right back. Don’t go nowhere.”
And Willie knows exactly what he wants to be:
“A rodeo cowboy.”
It sounds fitting for the Texas legend, I guess:
During the same interview, Willie also talked about the loss of his friend, Dolly Parton, saying they actually did an interview together not long before she passed and she “seemed fine,” and he had no idea how sick she was, but of course, her health struggles were kept extremely private, and even some of Dolly’s family members didn’t know much about what was going on with her.
He added that he “loved her,” and of course, they go way, way back:
“Oh, she was great. I loved her. No, I had no idea. I did an interview with her shortly before that, and she seemed fine.”
I can only pray we get to see that interview at some point… what a treasure.
When asked about how Dolly was one of the few people who could keep up with him when it came to performing together, because Willie is famously hard to follow with his unique phrasing, Willie said:
“Well, my phrasing is a little crazy, you know. And I don’t do it the same way every time, so that’s difficult.”
He was a fan of her from the start, recalling seeing her perform for the first time on the Porter Wagoner Show, which he loved:
“All the way back to the Porter and Dolly show, Porter Wagoner Dolly Parton. I was a big fan of that show. Oh yeah. I don’t think I ever was.”
Willie also revealed that he recently recorded a cover of Dolly’s iconic hit “I Will always Love You,” so it sounds like we might have another Willie Nelson album in the works soon, too… I’ll have my eye on that for sure:
“That’s a great song. Yeah, my last session. It was a great song, very positive song.”
It’s really amazing how long these two were friends and how intertwined their careers were for so many decades, and to have come up together when they were nobody’s just trying to write songs in Nashville to becoming two of the most iconic artists of all time is really something.
